


Hope of Morning.

by Emalf



Category: Densetsu no Yuusha no Densetsu | The Legend of the Legendary Heroes, Original Work
Genre: Angst, Drama, F/M, Fantasy AU, Mainly AU, many references
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-05-24
Updated: 2015-05-26
Packaged: 2018-03-31 23:42:55
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Rape/Non-Con
Chapters: 4
Words: 14,332
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3997627
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Emalf/pseuds/Emalf
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Susan Lute just wanted to live a normal life in wanting to be accepted by the humans in this world even though she is a human herself. Being cursed by a demon in her bloodline prove to be too difficult for her to handle; there are days where she wishes to just disappear and end the curse by ending herself. There was one bump in her usual daily routine that changed everything, meeting the last of his family line, Slade Ryder.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. The Day I Came to Met Him.

**Author's Note:**

> Mainly first point of view through the eyes of Susan. There is as many reference from the anime / novel Legend of the Legendary Heroes, but I mainly just wanted the eyes and of course, Ryner Lute himself as the main character's father.

"My dear Susan..."

 

Lifting my head up, though the face nearly seemed vague, I can clearly see from through the shadow of the bridge the young features of my father. His maroon eyes glistened from beginning to tear up, his tight blue shirt tattered and dirtied from the mud, his hazelnut colored hair that shine in the light, now damped and dark from the pouring rain outside where we finally took shelter under a bridge. I was young at the time, a little girl of only the age of ten running away from a vagabond unit who were chasing us far from any village and kingdom that may be well aware of our existence. Feeling his large, warm hand caressing my pink hair, he tried to brush away the few droplets of rain that landed atop of my head and although where we hid may be dirty, it didn't matter... Feeling his arms coming down to hold onto my small body tightly, I can feel his white cape over my back as he tried to draw warmth like a mother should. A mother should... No, our mother never abandoned us. She tried her best to protect us away from the curious villagers that may have suspected what my father and I are.

 

"Listen hear, my little daughter," a tilt of my head came as my azure blue eyes gaze into his dirtied facial features. Through even the small dirt and perhaps bruises on his face, he manages to maintain the kindest smile I have ever felt... I love my father.

 

"Remember that your birth is blessed," he began, bringing his head down and sheltered me away from the cold, "your mother and I love you very much..."

 

 _Why does it feel like you're leaving me...?_ I couldn't utter a word. My vision was growing dark, my body finally giving up on the strength to stay alert. All I can hear was the only voice of my father from the pouring rain.

 

"Papa will do all he can to protect you... You are never at fault." Feeling him sway our body to welcome my slumber more, I exhaled a shallow breath and succumb to the darkness within my vision. "I cannot wait for you to grow up into such a beautiful woman..."

 

...

 

...

 

...

 

"That dream again."

 

Opening my oceanic eyes, the first thing I saw was the ceiling. An everyday routine that happens whenever I came to awake from my sleep. I hardly have the strength to sit up, but with whatever reason, my body automatically came to bring me up where the next thing I would look is the window near my bed. I don't live in any fancy household; I live by myself in a village near the Rolle Kingdom. Feeling a sudden pain that struck my head, I winced quietly and brought my hand up to my temples, trying to ease the tension around the area if it ever worked. My peach colored hair swayed with the light breeze that came from the window I left open—summer is coming, and the heat really sucks. Rubbing my eyes, I took a glance at my housing. Just a simple wooden house with the kitchen in the corner, a fire place across from the entrance, a door to the side where the bathroom would be; everything is just one floor all together. I was able to manage something like this for probably two years. My income? You can say gardening at the local farm in the village where I plant, tender, get dirty, and collect the vegetables. It's not really an idealistic job, but it was manageable. If I still have enough energy, I ask the elderly couple next door from my place to see if they need any help.

 

Finally getting up from the bed, a sudden yawn escaped my lips as I try not to stumble over anything from my fatigue body. Deciding to go do my morning routine, I walked over to the kitchen area for a steel mug, a clean towel and headed into the bathroom to clean myself off. After a proper shower and an outfit switch from my evening tank-top and shorts outfit, I wore a nice dark blue, long-sleeved, shirt and some dark brown colored shorts making it easier for me to walk around. Upon exiting, I took a glimpse at the coat rack where a white robe hung and collected dust. I have to wash it when I get the time, maybe. Prepared to head out of the house, I placed on some simple white knee socks and heavy boots that cut off just slightly an inch or two above the ankle. Exiting out of the house, I made sure to lock the door and remember to carry the key around--I normally forget, but a woman can always climb through her window from the back. Walking down the stone paved floor, I noticed the old woman—Mrs. Kinst—was watering her usual small flowers.

 

Waving my hand and walking near her gate, I called to her attention, "good morning, Mrs. Kinst. A fine weather it is this morning, don't you think?" The sun is annoying, and I had to cover the beam by lifting my hands up—my face cringed a bit but regardless, I had to deal with this. Why did I ever pick the house where the sun greets me every morning…

 

“Ah, Susan! Good morning,” she paused watering her plants and gaze out to see the children from other neighboring houses exiting and playing outside—their parents came to follow, and soon in a few minutes, the small path of this tiny village was beginning to be filled with many other villagers who had their busy schedule of today. “You think you can sneak some fertilizer from the farm for me, dearie?”

 

A stiff laughter came to escape my lips from her request; giving a shrug, I began to walk over to the farm house, “maybe. If not, my apologies.” I heard her hum in disappointment, but regardless, she continued with a soft smile on her wrinkly cheeks and continued to water her dear flowers. Upon walking down the path from the east district, other people from the village gave their greetings; of course I waved in return. This small village that I live in, it’s not all that bad… Everyone knows each other by their names and to some extent if they wish to be more interested, but I rather not get involve with anyone at all. I just wish to live a normal life perhaps doing nothing and just nap somewhere underneath a tree on a day like this. You see, I live a cursed life; by a cursed life, the blood that runs through my vein is cursed and it is only from my father side. My mother remarried another man shortly after the death of my father when I was young, and when I came to find that only I am the one who bears the eyes of a Alpha Stigma, I was enraged and envious of my step sister’s life. As I grew older, I came to just roll with it. I had no care anymore and believing that I am just only a bother to family, I left home—their home where they live in a Kingdom—and took to the outskirts where the fields were green and there was an endless amount of hills to run.

 

The Alpha Stigma… Long time ago, my father told me the story of how his family had been cursed by a monster for betraying him and because of that, upon every generation, the demon would have a huge opportunity to use our bodies if one day we break from our sanity. I came to be aware of this upon witnessing the death of my father where the demon took over control of my body and annihilated the surrounding area. Dying, but still managing to move, my father brought his hand over my eyes to have the demon within me fall asleep and my own body back in control. It is a weird tradition—easy to stop as well, at least in my opinion. In order to prevent the demon from within to destroy anymore, all you need is for someone to close your eyelids with their hand. You cannot close your own, for by the time you bring your hands up, the stigma seals would have awakened it and bring chaos.

 

But enough of that… Just as I was traveling up the hill, I noticed a cart was being brought up and took a glance to see a sleeping man casually resting atop of the comfortable hay stack. The cart disappeared upward where it took me several minutes to reach to the top of the farm and noticed the local farmer had an angered look on his face.

 

“God damn it… I hate these stupid free loaders wanting getting in my cart!” Seeing him suddenly took a hold by the young male’s ankle, he seem to have woken up from the touch and later was tossed on the floor in a small pool of mud.

 

“Ah… Yuck!” He complained quickly standing up and trying not to smudge more of mud seeping into his clothing. “Couldn’t you have done that a bit politely?”

 

“Oh shut up!” Suddenly being tossed the equipment he brought with him—some sort of messenger bag and a bow—he was barely able to catch the item before tensing from the huge farmer coming up to him and shouting nonsense of how he had taken a freebie of sleeping in his cart. For some reason, the entire event made me stifle a chuckle. Seeing how they had stopped, they seem to have heard me laugh quietly and were aware of my presence.

 

“Oh… I’m sorry for interrupting.” I apologetically bowed. The farmer came to pull away and gave an irritable sigh.

 

“Mornin’ miss Lute, you kno’ you don’ work today, right?” Blinking, I felt dumbfounded from the sudden free day off. “Why is that?” I questioned.

 

“You don’ member? The festival!”

 

 _I guess that made sense._ Every year, as spring become summer, a festival would be held for the annual celebration for having to hoping to be blessed of better weather for the crops.

 

“Ehhhh? That sounds really lovely!” The young male chimed in, the farmer suddenly turned around and lightly smacked his back, ‘causing him to yelp and jump away and behind me. He was shivering from fear, I can tell… His fear is slowly coming to make me feel frightened by the farmer, even though I had done nothing at all. For some reason, the farmer had stopped his persuasion on the young male and raised a brow at my direction—a furious look came to his face. “..Are ye’ friends wit’ that free loader?!

 

Turning my head sharply to the man behind me, I gave him a cold glare. _Don’t involve me with your mess…_

 

In just a few moments, we were soon chased down the hill with a deranged farmer holding a pitch fork. Occasionally, he would throw it at us—mainly the young man who ran with me, but still! Finally able to escape successfully from the crazed older man, we were catching our breath behind a neighboring house where I laid limp against the wall and brought a hand up to cover my eyes from what just happened.

 

“God, I hope I don’t get fired...” I muttered silently. For some reason, the freeloader beside me overheard and joined in on the conversation, “w-well… We just met, so… if you probably explained it to him he could—uh, take you back…?”

 

My head snapped over at him with a straight face, my right eye twitched from annoyance before I settled to face him and cross my arms. Whoever he is, he was causing such a problem for me today. Seeing he gave an innocent smile, I sighed and turned my back from him walking away with whatever dignity I had left before I blew my rage on him. However…

“Hey, wait a moment!” Trying to ignore his calls, I continue on walking—this time in a faster pace.

 

“I said waaaait!” He whined before taking a hold of my shoulder. Turning around, I felt my rage slightly boiled a bit and revealed the stigma sign. Luckily for him, he was catching his breath still from how far I’ve walked away and upon my noticed; I covered my eyes to calm myself down. Bringing it down, I got a better glimpse of his face. He was handsome, that I will admit. With a fairly light skin, wearing a blue tunic and white tights, he had the bow that was thrown earlier wrapped held over his shoulder—his silver hair was something that would have stood out to me, but as my gaze met his, the color of his own eyes is the same shade of blue, only his appeared much like that of the sapphire gem. Another feature that took me by surprise was his warm smile; it made my pale cheeks become a rosy color before it quickly vanished upon a sudden memory of my father’s own kind smile. I felt the pain struck my head as I held the temples of my forehead relieving the painful aches.

 

“Are you alright?” Glancing back at him, he seems to have a look full of worries. Giving a gentle sigh, I lightly nodded my head. “Y-yeah… I’m alright.”

 

Seeing his toothy grin appears on his face, I wasn’t sure if I was bewitched under his attractive looks, or if I wanted to punch him from having such a carefree attitude around. Whatever it was, he had some business with me. “I was wondering if you can tell me a bit more about the festival!”

 

“You’re a traveler, right?” I interrupted his sentence with a question of my own, seeing him comply, he nodded his head.

 

“Oh, my name is Slade, nice to meet you Lute!”

 

My eyes came to roll, “it’s… nice? To meet you as well, Slade. And my name is Susan, Lute is just my surname.” Hearing him repeat my name, he extended a hand out for a handshake, and surprisingly, I brought my own up and held his to give a firm hold and shook it lightly.

 

“And no, I’m not going to give you a guide.” I spoke, retrieving my hand away.

 

“Ehhhhh! B-but… I’m sure you kind of know that I’m a traveler.” He brought his hands together and pushed his two index fingers together.

 

 _Kind of..? I know you are a traveler_. I came to exhale kind of knowing what he wanted, “did you wanted to see the summer festival?” Almost instantly his face brightened up from the question as he proudly nodded his head. It can’t be helped; sure I’ve heard the villagers here came to celebrate this once every year, but I myself never seem to partake in it. Namely for I wish not to be some sort of party pooper; however, his face suddenly drop from that similar to a child obtaining candy, and then being robbed from it. This caught my curiosity.

 

“Oh no, no… I was wondering if there would be any sort of people heading out into another village and all.” Seeing his lips came to force on a smile, I didn’t have the time to engage in poking for his business as to why he was suddenly leaving just as he came, but seeing how there was a festival coming up, I shook my head.

 

“Sadly, due to the event that will be taking place probably a couple hours or so, everyone will be busy preparing for the festival. Your best chance to head out is tomorrow where I don’t know who goes.” I lazily shrug my shoulders. He seemed distressed from how his eyes wandered somewhere else, seeing how he was a traveler and rarely this village gets something like that, he would have no place to stay considering how we don’t have a inn.

 

“Would you like to spend the evening at my house?” I offered. Seeing he brought his gaze back up at me, he was surprised and came to purse his lips into a soft frown. “But… I kind of made your boss angry, or… yeah.”

 

“Kind of true, but… He isn’t the only farmer around here, so don’t worry much about that.” Relieving one trouble of his, he seemed hesitant for someone who casually sleeps in the back of a stranger’s cart. Now that I think about it, what is his reason for traveling? No, no… I don’t want to probe onto his business. Turning around, I told him to follow behind where it was just a simple trip back to my house in awkward silence. Along the way, I would occasionally look back to see if he was actually paying attention to where he was going, surely enough, he seem to be looking around the place, but look back to see me await for him perhaps a few steps or so away. Noticing a group of people wearing black cloaks around the corner of a neighboring house far from my own, I blinked and noticed how suddenly there seems to be new strangers arriving today. It couldn’t be the festival… was it? Assuming they might be some sort of acquaintance of Slade’s, I was about to say something but only turned around to see him huddling quite close to my back—as if he was trying to hide his entire body. Sure he seem fairly average built, maybe slightly slim, but not that small to hide by my curvaceous body; he’s a bit taller and sticks out with his silver hair in comparison to my peach colored locks.

 

“Well, we’re home.” I spoke, stopping in front of my house and extracting the keys from my pocket. Just as I was about to open the door, Slade hurriedly pushed me inside nearly having me trampled over the steps. “Hey!”

 

Hearing him close the door shut and leaning on the door with a sigh, he looked back at me and gave me a quick smile. “S-sorry about that, there was a snake and…”

 

“What kind of half-assed excuse was that?!”

 

All I got from him was a shrug and that lovely smile he—… No, no! I don’t want to think about it! Sharply turning away from him, I’ve extracted my boots off and headed over to my bed where I comfortably laid back and glance out the window to see the sun still high. It might have been somewhere near noon, but still bright morning. When there are days off, I rather not go anywhere else but home to relax.

 

“So…” He began, taking a seat atop of the only chair in the room, “where do I sleep…?”

 

Sitting back up, I pointed at the floor.

 

“Y-You can’t be serious, Susan…”

 

My face showed no jokes, “unless you want to sleep back at farmer Benjian’s place, be my guest to get cut.”

 

“Ah… Actually the floor sounds real nice right now!” Hearing him changed his decision; I couldn’t help but chuckled at the sudden turn he made. It’s strange to have another company in this tiny household; quite awkward indeed… In a few minutes, a stomach rumbled. Glancing blankly at the only guy who happened to be in my house, he covered his stomach, his cheeks flushed a bright red from embarrassment.

 

“S-…sorry… I haven’t eaten in so long.” Getting up from the bed, I walked over to the fridge and open the compartment to find hardly any meal inside. All there was in the fridge is a tank to keep cold water, herbs that left the fridge smelling earthy and some peppers. Closing the door, I pulled out a pouch from my back pocket and pulled it open to see if there were at least some coins left over inside from having to work the previous days. Luckily, there is.

 

“You’re in luck, Slade,” I said as he raised his head up to look at me.

 

“Want to join grocery shopping with me?”


	2. The Warmth I Remember...

The open market in the small plaza was always filled with many vendors that sold food or souvenirs. Rarely, you would find someone trying to sale some sort of fake maps for treasure hunting, though there isn’t much people here in this village who would wish to travel far from their home land; just like myself, they want to have a relaxing life and start a family.

 

At first, Slade was skeptic; perhaps it was the group of men wearing strange marking on their cloaks that threw him off, so…

 

“Why don’t you use this?” Hearing my words, he turned his head over to my direction seeing me reach for the white cape that had always hung on the rack for ages. Never being used, I flicked it quickly for the dust particles to jump off for several times. It made me cough several time, but I would just swing my head and continue until finally the cloak seemed a bit brighter than how it usually looked. Walking over to Slade, I raised a finger up for him to stand and as he did, I brought the cape around and tied the neck piece with the red emblem it had to keep the coat securely on. Bringing my hands past his shoulder—I’m just slightly shorter then him by two inches—I grabbed the hood that hung loosely behind his head and brought it up.

 

“Surely this would do if you think someone will catch you.” Taking a step back, he came to examine himself, spinning around to see the ends of the cape flow with his body. It tangled him a bit, but with a swipe of his hand the cape would comfortably fall over his shoulder and behind his back. Hearing him humming, he brought his gloved hand up and lowered the hood before seeing his cheeky smile.

 

“This will do perfect!”

 

…And so, here we are now. Wandering in the market area with a basket in my arm and Slade with his hood up to prevent his identity from being known, we search for any local vendors that sales bakery, and hopefully some meat. It would be most enjoyable to finally eat meat once more, but because I am serving for two, budget would be a bit tight. I’ve asked Slade if he had money earlier, though he denied it as I remember he stowed himself away in another person’s cart to come here. Coming into the vegetable and fruit stall, I would raise a few items to see if they were perfectly well ripe to perfection—I’m slightly picky when it comes to a perfect fruit or vegetable, but sadly, I am quite dumbfounded to actually know what is even perfect. How ironic for a young woman who gardens for her work, huh?

 

Picking up a small basket of strawberries, a couple of apples, and some nice loaf of bread, I was down to thirty gold coins now. I wonder if it was enough for some delicious meat, but just as I was about to turn the corner to head down the street for more vendors, I stopped my action upon seeing two familiar men with the black cloaks from earlier. I raised my brow, there was only two; where are the other three at? Seeing them catch my gaze, I instantly turned around to bump into Slade who was aimlessly walking behind me.

 

“Something wrong?” He questioned. Grabbing his wrist, I pulled him away from the area and just decided to take him home with only the necessary meal to eat.

 

…

 

Upon arriving home, we ate our meal in silence; at least I had leftover butter behind the water container in the fridge to have our bread taste well.

 

Taking a bite of a few strawberries and tossing the stems on the plate, I stopped eating my meal and glanced over at Slade who was hungrily eating his portion. From the way he was scarfing the bread and strawberries in between, I came to give a slight frown; he must have been quite hungry, and from traveling behind in the farmer’s cart from another town, the duration from there to here must have at least been over night or less. Seeing Slade catch my eyes on him, he came to stopped his eating habits and tried to be polite by eating it slowly—a soft tint of red ran along his cheeks from embarrassment.

 

“…I-Is something wrong, Susan?” He gulped the food to speak properly before grabbing for the glass cup of water near his plate. Lazily, I shrugged my shoulders and settled myself back along the chair as my head rolled back.

 

“No… It’s nothing,” I muttered. As I reminded myself earlier, whatever problem he had, I don’t wish to be involved with—still… my curiosity is getting the better of me.

 

_Knock, knock._

 

Raising my head from the noise, I glance at Slade to see he was staring back at me; someone was at the door. Assuming they might be those men in a dark cloak, I pointed over to the window nearby bed that would lead straight to the backyard for Slade to hop over. With a strong nod, he hurried over to slowly open the window in preventing any noises and hoped over to settle along the wall. Walking out of my chair to the door, I opened the door and to my correction, it did happen to be one of those men. Upon a better examination from behind the cloak with their weird insignia on their back, they were a light armor as if they might have been someone from the local Kingdom in recruiting new men and women willing to be in their army; however, because their emblem is something not from any Kingdom I am familiar with, they must have been in some sort of clan or something…

 

“Can I help you?” I spoke, the door slightly just ajar open for only myself to be revealed and nothing more.

 

“Good afternoon there, maim! We’re just here searching for a runaway heir to the throne and his family has been deeply upset because of this.”

 

_A runaway heir; Slade?_

 

To be more thorough of their investigation, one of them brought a scroll from behind and unraveled it to show a drawn sketch of a terrible portrait of what might possibly be Slade. My eyes squinted at this, the only distinguishable drawing that I would noticed instantly would have to be the white hair and the bow he had over his shoulder. Shaking my head, I denied the question. Just as I was about to close the door, something prevented it from closing all the way through. Turning my head down to see the foot of a persistent person, I looked up to see them open the door widely to get a clear view of the room I was in. Nothing but myself in the room was evident enough that I lived by myself, though there is a plate other than my own on the table, I could always excused that for someone else who had come in earlier and just being overall lazy in cleaning up there mess. Instead, they handed me a copy of the picture with a forced smile on their face.

 

“Regardless, madam… If you have seen this guy, please find us right away somewhere in the plaza or into tomorrow!” Seeing his eyes narrowed down near the footsteps, I brought their attention up by snatching the piece of paper and assuring them that I will. Closing the door, I came to look over the paper I was handed.

 

**Wanted: Slade Ryder, the son of a royal family.**

So he lived a life of nobility and riches. Hearing noises by the window, I could see the wanted man climbing back through and landing on my bed with a soft sigh.

 

“Glad they’re gone…” He quietly muttered before lifting his head up and giving me a gentle smile. My brows furrowed at him with a gentle sigh. Bringing my gaze downward at the doorsteps, it was clear to me where there was evident of someone else being in the room with me.

 

His boots differ that of my own.

 

Instantly, my instincts told me to have him run from this place far but if I turn him in instead, he would be out of my problems, right…?

 

“They know you’re with me.” Seeing him coming to walk over to me, a soft frown was over his lips, but he quickly tried to give a sincere smile. “Guess I have to hurry up and run, right?” I froze. It was the right decisions, he just needs to get out of my life and I can continue back to my boring routines everyday… What was this sudden burst of emotion of denial screaming at me then? Cursing myself, I bit my lower lips and toss the paper aside before heading over to the basket sitting on the counter and extracting out the two apples earlier I had bought. Hurrying to Slade’s side, I opened his messenger bag and stuffed the fruits inside.

 

“S-Susan?” He was confused.

 

“Just put your shoes on, you need to leave. Now,” I demanded. They had taken suspicion upon me when one of them had taken a look of the other pair of boots that weren’t my size and if they had called back up; it would be just one big mess for me. Complying with my words, he reached for my white cloak and wrapped it around himself. Preparing ourselves for the worst, I opened the door to see if there was anyone waiting for us outsides—again, they seem to have noticed and gave me a wave. Clicking my tongue, I slammed the door shut and headed over to my bed where I led Slade out the window with myself and taking a good look around, no one was there.

 

“We can escape by jumping through the neighbor’s backyard and head over to the stables where you can take a horse and leave.” Skillfully jumping over the small wall that separated my yard from the neighbors, I was about to take off until I didn’t hear Slade’s movement.

 

Turning my head, I saw a sad expression of his came to view that made me gave a tilt of my head, and slightly annoyance on my face from him not hurrying.

 

“What are you waiting for, Slade?!” I harshly muttered, seeing him raise his head up, he gave a forced smile but his eyes differed otherwise.

 

“…I’m sorry for causing you trouble, and you even took your own life to conceal my own, but…” His words were trailed off as he took a glance over at the gate where if he walked out from there, he would reveal his identity to the men that were pursuing him and stop all his running. “I’m starting to get tired from running…”

 

Beginning to walk over at the gate, I felt a pained emotion ran through my body. Jumping over back, I prevented him from walking anymore by holding the white cape that he wore. Lifting my eyes, the ray of the sun blinded my vision momentarily giving the image of my father standing before me instead of Slade. True that he did not wear any similar clothing, but the white cape my dad once had… I kept it all these years and to finally be able to use it seemed like my own father wanted to help the young man escape. Within a few moments, the image of my father’s look disappeared revealing Slade’s confused look and soon, he panicked.

 

“W-Why are you crying?!” Confused, I brought my hands up and felt the warm streak of tears falling from my eyes; my vision became a blur from tearing up. Rubbing my eyes, I ignored his question and gave him a glare.

 

Giving a gentle punch to his chest, my fist shook and loosen its vice grip clutching his clothes.

 

“Don’t you dare give up, you idiot… You’re running for a reason, and I’m not letting you suddenly give up in being taken away because for some reason it seems as if it is my fault…”

 

_What was I getting myself into…_

 

“I may not know you, Slade, but something within me is screaming that your choice is wrong because… I just _know_ that is a decision you don’t want to pick.” He was surprised by me, a total stranger, telling him to continue on the run. It pained him more just by seeing his eyes avoid my own and his bottom lip lightly chewed over, he was in a conflict with himself alone.

 

“It’s alright,” I reassured him, his eyes coming back to look at my facial features that held a smile I rarely show.

 

“You can just owe me coming back here and giving me some souvenir or a story of some other place you’ve been.” I’ve made myself an ally, and seeing the hesitation on his face, I made the decision for him to escape.

 

Grabbing his wrist, I led him over the fence as we began to run through other neighboring houses. The silence was there, but somewhere within myself, I knew this is what is right.

 

“ _Remember Susan,_ ” feeling the adrenaline rushing through my body, I felt alerted, “ _if there is something that you believe is right, do not ever hesitate to do what you must._ ”

 

His voice echoed my head, my father.

 

Taking the dirt road now, we continued to run up the hill to find the stables where the horses were tended and cared for by one of the local farmers. Seeing the caretaker alone, I ran over to her, “Julia, I’m going to have someone borrow a horse for a while, is that alright?” I sharply spoke. The older woman seem suddenly taken aback from my sudden arrival as she eyed at myself and Slade behind me.

 

“Well… That’s fine by me, but I need for you to sign paperwork and a contract if you want to borrow—”

 

“Alright, alright! I’ll do the paperwork, but this man needs to go.”

 

“Need to go, where exactly?” Hearing the deep voice of one of the familiar man that came to my house, I turned sharply around to find all five of them circling around the only entrance out of here for the horse to go.

 

“Susan Lute… Was it?” My eyes narrowed from the way they pronounced my name, if they knew exactly what I am… This will all be an entire problem for everyone, let alone for me the most. “Now… Why does that sound familiar?”

 

“Isn’t she the daughter of Ryner Lute?” Another chimed in. So they are aware.

 

“Ohhhhh~ I heard, I heard! That devil that ran away from his execution back in Veldein, right?~” Now this one sounded quite young, a teenager in their group? Seeing Slade turn his head to look at me in bewilderment, nearly everyone across the nation would be aware of the man that ran from his execution. After all, he was one of the Stigma bearers that refused his execution in a fair court system. Despite all the false accusations, every human is afraid of the Stigma bearer…

 

“…Shut up…”

 

“Ooooh, careful Rino—you might anger the monster.”

 

“Whatever shall I do~?” The teenaged boy taunted, his hair platinum blonde, wearing such a noble outfit with high shorts and tights. If he didn’t have that cloak, he would definitely be assumed someone from a rich family.

 

“Sadly, we do not have a care about the Alpha Stigma, but… because there is one with Slade—the more the merrier, right?”

 

Majority came to shrug their shoulders, another came to laugh. Gritting my teeth together, my face was infuriated by their conversations and laugh.

 

“I didn’t know that demon can produce a hot woman though!”

 

“This should be definitely fun, right—”

 

Hearing his words cut off, everyone took a glance at the man who had been talking. His tanned facial featured came to lightly bleed from a small graze. Following his vision back to us, I looked over at Slade to see his bow had been extracted; another arrow was prepared resting on the weapon where he brought it back up to his vision.

 

“It’s not nice to talk to a beautiful woman like that… As rude as I sound, I advise you be quiet about it.~” Turning his head, he glanced over at me with a smile on his lips. For some reason, he was trying to act heroic, but his handsome features made me blush and looked away from how he was doing his best.

 

“Aw… Such love birds.”

 

“They graze your skin, Hector—” Rino pointed out trying to hold his laughter. The man, Hector, came to growl when he brought his hand up to touch his face. Instantly, he begins to recite the words of magic and aimed it at us, “I hereby give my contract to Urgula **[1]** , bring upon them your fiery wrath!”

 

Almost instantly, a seal was wrapped around his body—giving him a glow as his hand was making the single symbol and then firing it over to us.

 

Upon impact, the smoke came up from the air from impact. Their stiff laughter came, at least from Hector as his other friends came to join along in the laughter.

 

“Wow, some heir to the Ryder family and the daughter of a monster.”

 

“Wait—… S-something’s not right…” A frail voice came as the other’s turned their head to the only woman in their group who was trying to register the field.

 

“What’s wrong, Alice?”

 

“T-They’re unharmed…!”

 

Turning their head back to the area of smoke that came to clear out and showed three silhouettes, a few of them came to gasp from taking a glance of the eyes I held. The Stigma marked clearly shown and bright red. Before the fire orb had come to hit us, my stigma automatically registered the same pattern that Hector had done and recited what he spoke before causing a small explosion from the two magic that collided and brought upon the smoke.

 

>  

“Are you two unharmed?” I sighed, coming back to my usual posture and looking over at Slade and Julia. Slade had a bright smile on his face, while Julia on the other hand was deeply frightened from the news she had just witnessed. I don’t blame her… Someone in the village disguising to become an average human happens to be the daughter of a monster, and is one herself too. Upon commotions being created at the hill, the villagers came to gather around the field now fully aware of my presence and what was happening. Hearing all the mutters around, not only am I feeling anxious, but the group that was pursuing Slade came to worry as well; I guess they just don’t want to cause any harm for the villagers.

 

“Oh jeez… Why can’t we just massacre them all right here?”

 

“Because it would be such a huge burden on Glen, don’t you think~?”

 

“But we finally fuckin’ caught up to this stupid kid!” Hector scowled. “Then our priority is to take Slade, we’ll deal with the monster later… Now on my command!” Preparing their incantation, Slade alerted me with Julia behind us. It would be fine to take another blow from one of them, but if they were doing the same spell all at once, it would be dangerous for Julia.

 

“I hereby give my contract to Urgula, bring upon them your fiery—!”

 

“Under my name, I contract to you, Papirusagu **[2]**!” I called out; instead of the seals under my feet around my entire body, two small marks were highlighted by my ankle giving me a limited of time for fast speed. Holding Julia’s hand, I ran to the safest path and tossed her to the villagers before coming back to Slade and with just a good amount of time, held his hand and dragging him away from the huge fire ball that came straight to us.

 

“How problematic…” They cursed. Suddenly, one of them came to be struck by Slade’s arrow from atop of the roof.

 

“When the fuck did he—”

 

“The Stigma bearer…”

 

Readying another arrow, I stood beside Slade. I may not know much of the incantation, but with these eyes of mine that analyze every target, it proves easy for me to handle and use freely. The only magic I am aware to use freely would be increasing my speed temporarily; all others would have to be continuously copied in order for me to remember.

 

“We can’t find in a condition with this demon before us,” One of them muttered.

 

“That’s why, I brought this~” Rino hummed happily, extracting out a red shard from his pocket.

 

“Good idea, Rino.”

 

The platinum blonde-haired male came to walk forward from the group and held up the shard high. “Heyyyy~! Miss Monster!” My right eye twitched from irritation.

 

“Did you know…~? Those ugly eyes of yours can be extracted…?” With the most devious smile, he pulled out the red shard that came to be in a close proximately range where I heard my heart suddenly throb. I felt like I was having a heart attack… Clenching my chest, Slade brought his bow down to see me fall down to my knee—I could feel sweat protruding from the side of my face as my eyes glowed a dark crimson color. A silent scream escaped my lips as the vision I had of the blue skies and everyone around suddenly became dark.

 

“Susan…?! S-Susan, wake up!” Slade’s sultry voice came to fade from my ears, and the voice of a female rang in my ears…

 

_People die, but does it really matter to you?_

 

_No, it doesn’t matter._

 

“Y-you’re wrong…” I cried within my mind.

 

_I’m not wrong._

 

“S-Shut up!”

 

_This man, the group that pursues him, the calming village you live in… They are all yours to toy with._

 

A hum came from Rino seeing the act before him before he started to worry and withdrew the shard back to examine the red gem. “That’s odd… It should have worked.”

 

“Rino, what’s wrong?” Hector called out, coming over to him. Bringing the shard up to him, he pointed over where Slade and I were at. “Her stigma should have exit out of her body by now and be absorbed in this shard, but for some reason, it’s taking a _loooooot_ of time.” He exaggerated, bringing his hands along his own hips from irritation.

 

“Then something isn’t right.”

 

Turning their head to what seems like the leader of the group; he bears a black tattoo of a moon with thorns along the side of his face, his hair black and his silver eyes gazing at the event atop of the stable roof.

 

“S-Slade…” I managed to muttered, the Stigma within my eyes came to rotate in opposite directions from the first and second layer. “R-run… T-take the villagers… a-and… run!”

 

“B-But I can’t leave you—”

 

“Go!” I shouted and shoved myself away from his arms falling off the roof and onto the floor before the Rino and Hector. Slade panicked—stayed where he was and unsure of what to do. Seeing the two members walking over to me, Hector grasped my hair and lifted me up—my eyes blanked as Rino on the other hand brought his hand up to poke alongside my body for any reaction.

 

“What’s wrong, monster. Have you lost your stupid Stigma alrea—”

 

A sudden beam exit from my eyes and shot through Hector’s head as he slowly began to disintegrate into a form just like sand.

 

“ _Disappear…_ ” Slowly rising up to her feet, Rino jumped back in fear as he brought the shard back up and aimed it at the unmoving woman. Seeing this, she cocked her head and disappeared only to reappear before him and took hold of the shard within his hand with her own. Clasping it down, her lips came to creased into a soft smirk whereas Rino shook in fear.

 

_Pop_.

 

Seeing his entire right arm exploded off, the young boy came to fall back on the ground; his right arm disperse like sand and the shard that he held disappeared right before him.

 

“I was right… And this is why we should have just left with Slade already.”

 

“M-mas…—ter…” Hearing Rino called out to the tattooed man, his left arm hand trying to reach out to him, the boy is still alive compared to Hector. Turning his head to order one of his members to get him, they nodded their head and proceed with caution. Obtaining the young boy, and flinging him over his shoulder, they gave a final look at the woman who bore the Alpha Stigma, and up at Slade who was lost at words.

 

“Let’s go. I don’t want to risk another man dying.” With that, the group disappeared within a blink of an eye.

 

The blue skies became blood red, white clouds now tainted grey. The sun was nowhere to be found as the wind had died down to nothing. In a split second, the villagers panicked upon their realization and ran; however… The bearer gave no hesitation or chance of escape, one by one, she slaughtered them all. The cries of people filled the air; her clothes now became stained with red. Only some tried to fight back by throwing rocks at her and giving the children a chance to run with the elderly.

 

Slade sat there seeing what was unfolding before him, this was actually a alpha stigma’s doing…? Just moments ago, he held the hands of a young woman wanting to him escape, and now he was witnessing that same woman slaughtering people like pigs. He couldn’t prepare his arrows and had the heart to shoot down someone who tried to help him, but he couldn’t also see any more deaths of such a harmless village. “Damn it…” He cursed and secured the bow around his body following the path of dead bodies littering the streets. Frightened, he found her walking calmly down the streets trying to find even more people to annihilate.

 

“Susan!” He called out.

 

Upon hearing the name of the host she took over, the Bearer turned around to find only one man through the bloody path.

 

“Susan…? Is this the name of the daughter he came to give? My… how precious.” She wickedly smiles.

 

This frightened the young man even more as he swallowed the lump within his throat. All was silence, until a soft gentle breeze rolled down and into the village, her red eyes that held the seal came to felt weak upon seeing a familiar white robe she was all too familiar with. Holding her head slightly from a pain that struck her head, she curses herself silently as her eyes were begging to close.

 

“D-Damn it… N-Not now…” Seeing this as an opportunity, Slade ran up as Susan brought her own hand up ready to recite an incantation only to be beaten from the pain within her head to grow. Being tackled down onto the floor, almost instantly he knew what he had to do; bringing his hand up he brought it over to her eyes.

 

“Stop… y-you…” Feeling her eyes closed from his hand, she felt her energy dropping.

 

…

 

…

 

…

 

Feeling my shoulders being shaken, I heard a familiar voice flooding my ears.

 

“Su… Su—… san. Susan… Susan!”

 

_“Papa…?”_

 

“Susan! Can you hear me?”

 

Suddenly regaining my vision, I can see Slade having a calm expression. Other noises began to fill my ears, the cry of children and other people in the village I was familiar with. Bringing my hand up, I came to find it soaked in blood.

 

“Not again…”

 

Lifting his head up to hear sudden gallops of horses coming from the entrance of the town, in the distant, Slade saw a group of guards from the nearby Kingdom enclosing fast upon their approach. This isn’t good.

 

“Can you stand…?” Slade muttered, bringing myself up. With a shallow nod, I held him for support as I got a clear glance of the area around me—all stained in red.

 

“Then… Let’s escape…” Turning my head to look at him, my expression of blank and to hear that he wish to help me escape from the neighboring Kingdom’s grasp, I had no choice… I wanted to stay and atoned for my sins that I had just committed, but… What was telling me to go with him? Enclosing my hand around his own, he proudly held them as we began to run back to the stables, prepare a horse, and traveled a road the two of us was never familiar with.

 

…

 

…

 

“ _Papa… Can you hear me…? I’ve done yet another tragedy, but… I feel happy._ ” Slowly, encircling my arms around the waist of a stranger I just met today, I brought my head down and closed my eyes with a troubled sigh.

 

“ _I am a vigilante now… but I swear to you, I’ll atone for my crimes. Just…_ ”

 

Bringing my head up, I took a look at Slade from behind. I remember this feeling once in my life…

 

“ _Please don’t take me away from this warmth…_ ”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> [ 1 ]: Reference from a game who has the attribute of fire in Arc Rise Fantasia.  
> [ 2 ]: Again, a rogress whose attribute is speed within the game Arc Rise Fantasia.
> 
> And that concludes the second chapter. Within two days, I'll be gone for another two days, but I'm crossing my fingers I can write another chapter for your tomorrow. Thank you so much for reading.


	3. The Cat that Almost Got Away.

It’s been two days have the incident back in at the village where Slade and I had turn our tails from. I won’t lie, my face was written full of guilt within those days, and as clean as my hands are from being washed in the water, I would hallucinate and see the blood back on try to scrape my skin off in the process. If Slade wasn’t there, I would perhaps harm more of my body from the delusion state I was slowly in. We ran away from the guards that had come, hiding ourselves deep within the country’s borderline forest that extend for miles long towards west of a neighboring kingdom. Sure the road would be an easy path to take, seeing how we just had to follow closely along it, but that would be very obvious for the guards to finds and take us away easily.

 

Splashing water on my face, a terrible sigh came to escape my lips. My reflection rippled before the river stream that came down from the mountains as I noticed Slade’s appearance came from behind me as I turn to look at him. It’s been so long since the two of us have eaten, and we barely was able to manage only one apple to ourselves, and another apple for the horse to keep its energy strong for our travels. I have to admit… I hate to be living where I’m always on the run; then again, you can say I’m used to it from running with my father as well.

 

“So, do we know where we’re heading?” He came to squat down beside me, as I look up the river stream and quietly hummed to myself. “I think we might be heading to the Triolle Kingdom if we continue heading west.”

 

“…Do we know exactly which way is west?” He had a good point, but coming back up to point at the river’s direction flow heading down, I spoke, “well, I was aware that this stream head towards my village from the north, so if we find a sharp curve up the river stream, we just have to turn opposite from that corner of the river and continue ourselves.”

 

Seeing he slowly nodded his head from understanding, I came to clean the small fireplace we had created the previous night and slept. It was a chilly evening… Oh how I miss the sweet embrace of the warm blanket that I held back in the comfortable bed I laid in. Kicking the dirt and throwing rocks in random direction so that there wouldn’t be any evidence of a fireplace being created, I walked over to the horse where Slade had just finished up drinking water by the stream and hopped on to ride. Deciding to take an easy stroll up, we didn’t wish to exhaust the horse, so a simple walk would do. Slade held the straps as I came to sit atop and comfort the majestic being that gave us the ride. Beginning the walk, our conversation was strangely silent, but we took in the sights of the beautiful scenery of the forest. I never made it far from the village. Just from Triolle Kingdom and the village itself.

 

“So…” Hearing Slade start a conversation, I turned my head to look at him out of curiosity, “do you know anyone within the Triolle Kingdom?”

 

My brows furrowed slightly at his question as I gave a soft nod.

 

“You can say… I’m familiar with the Prince who lives there, not to mention my mother and her husband and my step sister lives there.”

 

This piqued his interest seeing how he came to turn his head and look over at my direction, “so you do have a family and a boyfriend too!” I could feel my blood boil slightly as my hand aimlessly missed a punch on his shoulder on purpose before I lazily settled myself on the horse shaking my head.

 

“No silly… He’s not my boyfriend; he’s my best friend, not to mention he doesn’t swing with woman.”

 

“E-eh…?” Hearing him stiffen from his words, I couldn’t help but quietly laugh and nodded my head. “He’s into men, which is so strange for a royalty, right?”

 

Seeing him hesitatingly nod his head in agreement, I closed my head momentarily knowing he would ask a question I rather not answer, “So… How is your family like…?” Thinking quietly to myself, a gentle hum was my response. My mother did remarry another man after the incident with my father, but you can say that she had remarried to the other man three or four years previously. My father is a joke… Falling in love with a woman who took pity on him—I find it strange how I was able to come into this world now that I think about it… but remembering his words—that my life is blessed—just makes me want to tear up from missing him so much. Slade noticed the silenced and slight tension around my shoulder, he gaze elsewhere and came to frown from his question. Opening his mouth to speak again, he was interrupted when I began talking.

 

“My younger sister is a brilliant girl, she’s six years younger than me, and is trying to study in the field of medics and magic in order to help others.”

 

Turning my head to face him with a soft smile, he could tell I seemed hurt, but I shoved the feeling away by continuing my words. “My mother… I guess you can say she’s a florist—hence why I came to be slightly familiar with gardening, but remembering all of that is just too hard for me to handle.” I chuckled. He seems to have smiled lightly from that.

 

“My step father is a genius, a scientist and a proud father for trying to keep the family all together—except for me where I live somewhere else before.”

 

“Step-father?” He stopped his walking, ‘causing the horse to wait for his instruction as I nodded my head. “Then… what happen to your actual father?”

 

I silently gulped a lump down my throat that was begging for me to scream out into the forest that may alert strange creatures lurking around. My lips parted, but no words dared to come out as I was hesitant on what to say about that.

 

“My dad…” I began, the fringes of my peach bangs fell slightly forward to hide my azure vision that glisten from beginning to tear up.

 

“My father is—…”

 

“Oooooooooooooooohhhhhhh shiiiiiiitttt!!!!!”

 

Suddenly hearing the cry of a voice, we both turn our heads away from each other and looked ahead. The ground slightly shook and in a distance smoke came to rise up above the trees as we noticed a figure was running straight towards us. My stigma eyes came to appear giving me a slightly enhanced look from a far distance. Two distinguished parts were shown off: one is the cat-like ear that came to be twitching atop of their chestnut colored hair, and second, the brown tail with a white tip at the end tensed and waved furiously from being spooked. He was wearing some sort of white collared shirt with a black and grey checkers pattern print, the brown bow-tie around his neck, and some lighter tanned cuffs of their darker capris. The white tights were seen from far away as they tried to jump shoeless from a huge ogre. Wait… An ogre…? The color of my face literally drained from the size of the beast wielding a club as I noticed the cat-man was running straight at us.

 

“Slade…”

 

“Y-Yes, Susan?” He spoke, unsure if he should pull out his bow and prepare for a fight, or book it. Coming down from my horse, he drew his bow out seeing how we weren’t going to run from this. Bringing my hand up, I began to write in the symbol of the incantation earlier from practice, “I’m sure we can scare him off with a fire arrow.”

 

Readying his aim, I began my incantation and slide my hand to aim it towards the arrow where a spark was suddenly made and the tip came to go up in flames. Easing him that his bow will not burn, he felt relieved. Only when he fires, will the arrow be drenched with flame and create a small explosion.

 

“Here my offer, Urgula—for I need your aid on this arrow…” Seeing the cat person noticing Slade’s aim, he panicked and dropped down on the floor giving a perfect chance to shoot. Releasing the arrow, it hit the ogre on its shoulder where the beast stumbled slightly and noticed his right shoulder was burning.

 

“Perfect aim,” I happily spoke as Slade cheered, though our small victory came to an end fast when we saw it walked over to the river stream and cupped a good water portion with his left hand then tossing it over his right shoulder and extracting the arrow out. “N-not good…” Hopping on the horse, we dashed forward and grabbed hold of the shuttering cat man before dragging all three of us back within the forest as the cry of the ogre was heard.

 

…

 

…

 

Panting heavily, I rest against the tree with my head along it as Slade held his chest to ease his beating heart. The other person on the other hand seem to have passed out—or died—from being dragged on the floor and trying to run with the horse. Caution, I placed a hand over his face to feel his breath if there was any… He’s still breathing. Giving a light tap on his cheek, I noticed that this person seemed more humanoid than that relation towards an actual cat. He did have whiskers and a nose like one, but everything else can be seen like a human if one were to remove it all away. Suddenly shooting his eyes open, he left out a scream as I placed my hand over their mouth and pushed him on the floor with a loud shush.

 

“You want that guy to come and get you?!” I harshly spoke. Seeing he shook his head, I released my hand away from his mouth and settled back to sit my ass on the ground.

 

“God… Why the hell did you even disturb him for…?”

 

“Eh… you seem knowledgeable with beast, Susan.” Hearing Slade coming up to the two of us, I turn my head and gave a slight nod, “I’ve read the lores and all in my spare time, but c’mon… Even that is obvious.”

 

“W-well… ” Hearing the guy suddenly coming up to his feet, it was then that I noticed the bag that he held within his arms securely over his chest moved. Standing up beside Slade, I pointed over to what the stranger had. “The hell is that…?”

 

“Oh—this?” Revealing the bag he held, the top flipped back only to find a black cat sticking its head out and a sudden meow. Suddenly struck with awed, I felt my face lit up from the adoration. “C-cute…” I calmly spoke, Slade on the other hand glance at my reaction and tilted his head at the head. He felt awed as well, but not as captivated by the cat as I was.

 

“Her name is Ushi… You can say that the sudden mess I gotten myself into was because of her.” Seeing him brought his hand up and lightly giving a slight knock along the head of the cat, she hissed and playfully clawed along her owner’s hand. Coming to cross my arms over my chest, I tried my hardest to resist the temptation to pet the cat. Yes… I have a weakness when it comes to animals; they have quite a adoration in comparison to beast, but all in all, I try to keep my resistance up and sharply turn my head to look somewhere only to look at Slade’s handsome feature eyeing over at myself and the stranger. Now that didn’t help, so I just closed my eyes earning two people to have a confused look on their face because of my action. Breaking apart from my sudden shyness, Slade came to turn over to the guy and extended a hand out to him.

 

“Well, it’s nice to meet you Ushi! My name is Slade, over there is Susan~” Seeing how the cat had meowed at him made his grin grow. With a soft smile on the features of the stranger came, he brought his hand down and reach for Ushi’s paw and brought it up to lightly tap it on Slade’s palm.

 

“My name is Qulin Bendova, it’s nice to meet you both.” He happily spoke.

 

…

 

We came to find out from Qu that there is a village nearby within the forest; one where beasts walk amongst with man—and how there seems to be more of her kind. There was also cat-like person, lizard, bird… I wasn’t aware that this world had so many different races, but I shouldn’t be that surprised seeing how a monster like me is born within this world. Qu explained how there is a town deep within the forest where normal travelers would never be familiar with, unless they had gone through the forest taking a different route within the trees to accidentally find it. It was a calm place by the seaport where the town was around a huge sea from the west, and on the other side would be the forest that is named Heavenly Grove. Upon having him lead us to his home, we also found out about Ushi’s real identity.

 

“So… she was actually a person who walked on two legs like you?” Slade questioned, earning a nod from the beastman.

 

“She was cursed by a shaman, and apparently the only cure is some sort of pond that can remove this curse.”

 

“Remove… a curse?” This had taken me by surprise… If this place actually did exist, then surely I can get rid of this stupid demon within me. Accidentally in deep thoughts, I came to scamper over Slade who had stopped his movement to look at me. “A-ack! Sorry…” I politely spoke, feeling his hand over my arms to prevent myself from falling; however, taking a look up I noticed his sapphire hues were filled with sadness… He must have read my mind when Qu had talked about the pond that can take away a curse—but it shouldn’t be affecting him. After all, this life of mine… is such a curse even though I was told that my birth is blessed. It’s rather hard to think otherwise…

 

“…So are you two a couple?” Tearing my gaze away from Slade, I immediately pushed myself off of him as I hurried forward ignoring his question. Qu took a glance at Slade to which he looked the other way and shook his head lightly.

 

“No… We just happened to be running together.” With a solemn smile, he continued to walk with the horse by his side. Qu looked down Ushi as the two lock gaze and he shrugged before continuing to walk down the path of a different stream to the one we earlier saw.

 

More information about Ushi, she is Qulin’s lover and the two were once sold into slavery for a priest within the capital of a foreign land they weren’t familiar with. They were separated for a couple of years until they were brought back together from escaping and being captured—only this time, they were going to be used for sacrificial rituals for humans to become enhanced with the ability they have. Ushi was the first to have gone for sacrificing her life for her love, and upon that, her punishment left her becoming an actual cat that many spat hard. Just as it was Qu’s turn to join along with her, Ushi foiled everything with the help other others who had become animals giving Qu the chance to escape. Months later, Qu came to heard about this village from other beastmen within the area—talking how it’s a safe haven for all of them to finally relax. He was conflicted whether or not he should settle down, but with a strong determination every time he looked in Ushi’s eyes, he swore to himself that they will one day own a farm out in the field with their own land and holding the hand of a familiar lover than the paw of a cat. Still, Qu love Ushi—an animal or not, he has held on long enough.

 

Entering the household that happened to be a part of a tree, the stair led up to the entrance where it looked as if the house had been growing and forming within the tree for such a long time. Nice architecture. Settling the horse within a nearby stable, I was able to ask Qu for a change of clothing seeing how my own were slightly stained from the blood days ago, but now that I’ll be able to trash them out and wear something new, I was relieved.

 

Holding a spare towel and the clothing in hand, I stood up from my the dark green couch I sat where I had gaze at the balcony that was open showing the image of the sea and many other interesting housings.

 

“Shall we take a shower together?” With confusion on my face, I looked over at Slade who happened to look back at me as Qu had stared with his ears twitching. Pointing at myself, I hesitatingly spoke, “y-you mean… Me?”

 

He nodded his head with a soft smile, “yeah. We get limited hot water, so we should try to save up by showering together and Slade by himself.”

 

“W-wait, wait!” Slade spoke, suddenly standing up. “I-I should be the one showering with you; I-It would be rude for Susan to see another guy…” His sentenced trailed off; a soft blush appeared on his cheek as I nodded my head in agreement and shivered at the sudden thought of showering with someone of the opposite gender.

 

“He’s right! A-And you’re with Ushi too, isn’t that just… Awkward?” I calmly spoke, bringing my hand up to rub the back of my neck.

 

A moment of silence came before the three of us—then Qu came to burst out laughing, falling down on the floor and clutching on his stomach. Confused, Slade and I looked at each other from his action as we could see the tears of joy that came to exit from his eyes. “O-Oh… oh my god… you two are stupid…” My foot came to swing back ready to kick him square in the nuts until he struggled up and wave his hand in defense from me.

 

“No, no!” He tried to speak in between laughing, trying to have me listen. “Y-You both thought I was a guy…?”

 

We both nodded our heads. Laughter came as _she_ held the edge of the couch.

 

“Oh my god—nooo! I’m a **girl**!”

 

My face became blank as Slade’s own turn red from his sudden outburst earlier causing him to look the other way.

 

…

 

_And so dad… I met another new friend who’s a lesbian this time..._

 

_I wonder if Slade is gay as well..._


	4. And we all shared laughs.

Slipping my body in the large bathtub that rest along the corner, Qulin came to follow from a different side and quietly sigh from the feeling of the hot water taking both of our aching body in; mainly myself. I never had the luxury in taking a bath in a while and feeling the water cress my cold skin was something that gave me goose bumps. Awkwardly, I gave several glances over at Qulin's chest—surely enough it was evident that her chest isn't as big as my own. Looking up, I can see her brown eyes staring at me with a gentle glare as she brought her hands up and covered her chest in defense.

 

"You do know that I'm taken, right..."

 

"What the hell—I told you I don't swing that way!" I complained, a soft color of red ran along my cheeks from her words; with that, I buried myself under the water, just my head barely above the surface as I quietly blew bubbles. Closing my eyes momentarily, I came to think over the events that had just happened the past few days. Meeting with Slade and escaping from the royal guards after massacring an entire village, I will definitely grow wrinkles from frustration.

 

"What's on your mind?" Opening my eyes, I saw Qulin grab a spare bucket and poured her head to wash herself as she handed it over to me and reach for the shampoo to carefully apply on.

 

A gentle hum escaped my lips, "who knows... I'm curious about that pond you had talked about." This made her stop scrubbing her head and for me to apply water on myself before reaching for the same shampoo and reading over the label; hopefully it's alright for someone other than a cat to use this...

 

"Oh, about that pond?" I nodded my head, "well... It's just a rumor, but who knows... They say a fairy lives in it and can grant her blessing to undo the curse that has been done. Why, are you cursed by a Witch or something?" Seeing how I had continued to wash my hair with shampoo and drawing water over my head for the bubbles to disappear from my hair, Qulin had a feeling it might have been something related, but in all honesty, I rather not tell her that I am a Stigma bearer. It would cause such a hazard if I were to draw blood in this peaceful town... This peaceful town similar to the village I lived in.

 

"I won't ask," I heard her spoke, lifting my gaze up as I saw a small smile along her lips trying to reassure me, "but please give Ushi a chance to go first..."

 

"Wow, you are definitely an idiot if I was going to shove your girlfriend away from such a blessed pond." I chuckled.

 

...

 

Wearing the spare clothing that Ushi had once worn, I was surprise her size had fit me—considering how she's slightly around my height, if not taller, though the bust area could use some work... Because there wasn't a spare bra around that could fit my cup size, Qu applied bandages that would help make it a bit comfortable for my breast until we go shopping. Wearing a black turtle neck loose sweater, a pair of brown shorts that rose around my thighs, I felt really comfortable in the outfit I was wearing. It may prove to be quite an adventure outfit for the mean while. With a white towel around my neck, I came to enter the dimly lit living room and found already a worn out Slade who's been snoozing along the couch. He seemed to have been exhausted just like I have. Not wanting for him to miss his bath, I came to walk over and held his shoulders, lightly shaking him.

 

"Hey, Slade—it's your bath time," I tried to stir him awake, but it seems to be dead asleep. Turning around, I looked to see if Qulin had finished dressing herself up, she mentioned about taking Ushi a quick shower so I decided to sit on the couch at the opposite end nervously. This house hold only has one bedroom, and that was Qulin's. Strangely enough, I denied sleeping in the room with her and Ushi and would rather much sleep in the living on the couch. It's quite comfy and large. Circling around the room living room to look at other ornaments and decoration of the place, one picture frame came to catch my attention, two young little girls holding each other hands wearing such a tattered up dress. One of them was crying, the other had a glare quite scary. Assuming the crying girl would be Qulin, the one who had such a glare must have been Ushi and that this was their photo from their younger days. The photo itself had creases and had burn marks around the edges—it must have been a photo when they were up for slavery... To hear that still exist within this world is truly something unbelievable to hear. Noticing more drawings of either fishes, other beastmen, and perhaps a portrait of a cat-like person like Qulin, I assume that one of the two—or perhaps both couple—are quite amazing drawers. Drawing... A skill I lack and can't draw so much, now that I think about it the portrait of Slade earlier from the people who were after him had a terrible portions and exaggerating roundish face. Turning over to look at Slade, his head seem to hung forward giving me a soft frown. Sleeping in that sort of position would strain his neck. Enclosing before him, I place my hand underneath his chin and tilted his head back, surely enough, he had slanted his head the other direction and outstretch more. Slightly aggravated by this, I tried to lean his head back on the couch leaving me sitting beside him and helping him straighten out his posture.

 

"Damn it, Slade..." I quietly muttered, and before I knew it, he came to lean close onto me resting his head comfortably within my arms. My pale cheeks became rosy and warm from the sudden closeness, I felt awkward yet... Calm.

 

"How long have you been running..." I muttered knowing the answer will never be given from a sleeping young noble who's on the run. Securely, I came to wrap my arms around his frame and brought my head down to enclose him close. Ah... This feeling... I remember how my dad held me just like this. Full of warmth, protection, and above all security. Feeling my mind becoming blank, I noticed I was dozing off as my head would snap me back up from alertness and before I knew it, I came to succumb within my sleep with my arms around someone other than my father.

 

_Ah... Can things stay like this forever, dad...?_

 

...

 

...

 

Hearing the birds chirp with joy in a distance, I felt myself regaining conscious. Fluttering my eyes open, I came to see things sideway and noticed I had laid on the couch for sleep. Sitting up, I felt a light fabric fell along the side of the bed as the smell of a familiar pastry filled the air in the living room. Rubbing my eyes, I looked over to find Qulin was blowing a pot with Ushi sitting on the counter casually. Seeing the cat turn her head at me from noticing my awakened state, Qulin's ear flicked and turned around to copy the same thing with a gentle smile.

 

"Mornin' there!" A meow followed from Ushi's mouth as I sheepishly yawned.

 

"'orning..." I managed to utter as I heard footsteps coming from down the hallway. Turning over at the entrance, I came to find Slade ruffling his silver lock with a spare towel. Wearing a comfortable, slightly tattered, blue shirt, some white pants and socks, he seem to look quite bright today. Perhaps it may have been a good bath we all had just taken. Noticing my gaze, he gave a cheeky smile, "morinng Susan!" He happily spoke before going around the counter and petting Ushi's head and grabbing a cup of water from the fridge.

 

"Morning," I repeated once more as I sniffed the air earlier of such an amazing aroma. "Mm... Something smells nice, Qulin..." I muttered as she came to laugh and continue on stirring something in the pot.

 

"I just bought some bread earlier this morning at the bakery store! Slade came to help grab the groceries with me, so I decided to make tomato soup with some tendons, carrots and all." Just hearing the word meat already made my mouth watered and my stomach growled. Hanging along the side of the couch, I came to bring my hand down and held my stomach trying to ease its calls for the food.

 

"I pray to god there's a lot of succulent meat in that stew then..." I muttered, this earned a couple of gazes from Slade and Qulin who looked at me strangely. Noticing that, I tried to cover my blush and turn my head the other way. "It's just a good nutrition in my diet, alright—" I sharply spoke.

 

"That's what she said—" Suddenly Qulin burst into laughter as my hand came up and slapped myself on the forehead from her comment. Slade tried to occupy himself by drinking the cup of water in his hand, only to choke slightly from thinking of the comment earlier and coughing heavily. This time, Qulin dropped the wooden spoon in the pot and fell over to hear he was struggling from not laughing earlier. Just as I felt irritated, I soon came to find myself laughing along with them.

 

I haven't laughed this hard in a while...

 

Once the stew had finished, Slade helped pass the bowl around with Qulin pouring a good amount of the stew in our bowls. After she gave some meat for Ushi, she passed around the bread for us as she held the baguette in her hand, "cheers to finding that pond!" She happily called out bringing it up. With a gentle smile on my face, I followed along as Slade did as well.

 

"Cheers~"

 

Just as everyone was about to begin their meal, I accidentally muttered something, "it felt like we were touching tips..."

 

"E-ehhhhhhhh?!" Slade nearly dropped his bread on the floor as Qulin tried to cover her mouth from taking a bit of her bread and nearly almost spitting it out. "C-can you not!" She said, trying her hardest not to launch her food. Now that I noticed it... She was sitting right across from me, giving her the perfect aim to shoot me in the face with the bread in her mouth.

 

"Oh hell no..." Scooting my chair over at the opposite side of Slade, Qulin quickly wavered her hand and swallowed her food and patted her chest to try and have her food not come back up.

 

We all ate happily together; the meal she made was quite delicious and with the combination of the bread—I kind of wish there was more since I seem to have taken more than I should. The bread on the other hand was soft and slightly warm, just as if it was freshly baked from our oven. The tendons and brisket in the soup was delicious.

 

"How come you're not eating your vegetables?" Hearing Slade caught this, I awkwardly looked away.

 

"I... guess you can say that I'm not used to eating my vegetable when I was a kid..."

 

"What a spoiled brat..." Qulin muttered as I flicked a carrot in her soup. She gasp from surprise and hissed over at me seeing my tongue stuck out childishly.

 

"Then I'll take it!" Turning our heads to Slade, he reached for my bowl and took the carrots and onion leaving only the remnant of the meat and the tomato soup. Blinking at his courtesy, he gave a bright smile before happily eating his meal and complimenting on the food Qulin had made. I'll admit, it is quite delicious... but I silently ate my own meal with a gentle blush on my face from noticing how open I seemed to have acted today. Unconsciously... I wish for days like this to never end, where we are all smiling with joy and not a care in the world. No would be hurt, happily living in a cozy home like this, sharing laughs and smiles... Papa...

 

"Susan?"

 

Hearing my name being called out, I broke out from my trance and look up to find there gaze over at me. Blinking, I noticed my vision was slightly blurry as I felt something warm ran down along my cheeks; bringing my hand up, I felt a web substance along my hand and registered it to be my tears. Pulling my sleeves over my hand, I rubbed my eyes and quietly sniffled.

 

"Are you alright...?" Qulin asked, slightly worried. With a gentle nod, I pull my arm down and came to give a soft smile. "Yeah... I just couldn't believe you were actually a good cook~"

 

"...I doubt my cooking would leave you crying like that." Her brows furrowed, but pushed it aside by returning the smile to see a sincere smile like my own.

 

"You should smile more often, if you do—you-know-who might happily fall for you!"

 

"The hell are you talking about!" I spat.

 

...

 

...

 

Preparing our bags with some content of food like fruits and bread to last for a couple of days, we also took some pots and knives in case we ever get lost and decided to hunt for boars or rabbits. Deciding to journey our way to the west and up northing, we should be hiking to the heavenly peak where the rumored sacred pond would be at. Prepared with two horse for our journey, Slade seem quite happy now that we were able to obtain a map of the land. Our next destination would be that where the Triolle Kingdom is at; Qulin is hoping for me to hook up with my dear friend on a luxury inn and meal, but explaining to her that Slade and I are vigilante running around from the neighboring kingdom beside, she came to agree with just finding a nice inn at least. With her keen smell and eyes, we won't be able to get lost and avoid danger very easily.

 

Seeing her gently placed Ushi in the messenger bag along the horse, her hand lightly caressed her head with a soft smile, "I know the ride will be bumpy at times... but try to bare it, alright?" Earning a meow from the cat along with a lick along her palm, she happily laughed and came atop of the white stead that turned around. Respectively getting on the horse behind Slade where he seem to look at the map, I looked over his shoulders to see him rather in deep thoughts and humming to himself.

 

"It should at least take about an entire day and night for us to be there if we decide not to rest... But if we do choose so, then the duration would prolong to at least three days."

 

"That's understandable." Turned around and leaned on his back comfortably as Qulin nodded her head. "I'm sure we can survive within the forest for three days, right?"

 

Everyone was in on an agreement about that.

 

Qulin turned her head to look at the house they had owned and lived in for perhaps a month or two, it pained her to see that she would be leaving it, but she'll return once more to move their stuff out and find a comfortable land for her and Ushi to own—just one day.

 

Looking over at the road, we looked at each other and gave a nod. Kicking along the side of the horse, we began our journey through the hidden path to head in the Triolle Kingdom.

 

...

 

My arm laced around Slade's waist, holding him close where I rest my head and closed my eyes. Perhaps I was still sleepy, but even through the sounds of the forest, the horse galloping harshly on the ground, within his body I can hear... His heart that beat slightly fast.

 

Whenever I think of Ushi and Qulin, I come to think of Slade and I.

 

What sort of relationship do we have...?

 

_Father... is this feeling within my chest similar to how you feel for mom?_

_The feeling to protect, and care... To never let go like you had with me._

_..._

 

"It seems their making their move."

 

Standing in a distance, a tall and large male stood at the entrance we had just left. Wearing a golden mask, a coat with many belts around him, only his red eye through the small slit on the right side was noticed—filled with such a soulless self.

 

"Triolle Kingdom, I presume?" Hearing another voice, from what seems to be a bug fluttering beside the male, he nodded his head.

 

"Keep a close eye on them, Kitsune..."

 

"With pleasure..."

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is slightly 500 word count short, but you know... I enjoy writing this.  
> Hopefully next chapter will be longer and enjoyable for you to be entertained. I was currently writing this from someone else's computer and sadly, their Microsoft Word reallyyyyy sucks. If there is any errors or things that didn't make sense, I am terribly sorry.
> 
> Next chapter will hopefully introduced their journey in Triolle Kingdom.
> 
> I wonder who will make their appearance~? ♥
> 
> Will they join the party as well?
> 
> Stay tune til' tomorrow! And I shall write this very late at night since I will overall be busy.


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